


Behind all the Armani

by Hallie_Blue



Series: Something Good Can Happen [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adorable Isaac, And Danny's okay with it., Danny is close to finding out, Danny pretends he's perfect, Danny's parents are homophobes, Gen, Inferiority Complex, Isaac Lahey Feels, Isaac POV, Jackson is obsessed with a video of himself sleeping, Kanima Jackson Whittemore, Mahealahey Feels, Mahealahey pre-slash, Matt Daehler is a Stalker, Mentions of homophobia, Pre-Slash, References to Homophobia, Scott's got a not-girlfriend, Secretly Hurting Danny, armani hides the pain, but he's not, comic books cure sadness and sadism, danny pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-12 22:12:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hallie_Blue/pseuds/Hallie_Blue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone thinks that Danny Mahealani’s life is perfect, and Danny wants everyone to think his life is perfect, because Danny wants to think his life is perfect. </p><p>For the record, Danny’s life? Not so perfect... like, at all... seriously, it’s not even close.</p><p>or</p><p>The one where Danny's is frustrated and Isaac takes his mind of off things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Danny

Everyone thinks that Danny Mahealani’s life is perfect, and Danny wants everyone to think his life is perfect, because Danny wants to think his life is perfect.

For the record, Danny’s life? Not so perfect... like, at all... seriously, it’s not even close.  

Yet Danny pretends that it is, because he knows that’s what everyone is used to: happy, smiling, “I’m okay, because I say so” Danny. Because, apparently “Everybody likes Danny”... they say it like it’s a fact, the way people say, “Lydia is a genius” or “Jackson is everybody’s type” or “Scott and Stiles are so close they are now ScottandStiles-no spaces”.

Only, unlike “Lydia is a genius” and “Jackson is everybody’s type” and “Scott and Stiles are so close they are now ScottandStiles-no spaces”, “Everybody likes Danny” is a complete and utter lie because, as self-explanitary as it may seem, not everybody likes Danny. His laundry list of ex-boyfriends and his family are more than enough to prove that. Obviously, Danny has the worst luck with relationships: his best friend is a douche, his ex-boyfriends were each a nightmare in and of themselves, he was crushing on Matt Dahler who is stalking Scott McCall’s Not-Girlfriend and he was born to what are apparently the only homophobes in all of Beacon Hills.

So, yeah, Danny’s so-called perfect life is really not that perfect at all.

It wasn’t like his parent’s tried to make him straight or anything...they just tried to make him feel guilty about the fact that he wasn’t. Though, more often than not, they just ignored him all together. When they weren’t doing that, however, Waiola and Iake Mahealani would bicker loudly about which one of them was responsible for their oldest son being such a “troubled young man”. It hurt Danny a lot to know that it was his sexuality, not his “Illegal Hacking” as Stiles calls it (though what other kind of hacking their is Danny is uncertain) that his parents took issue with.

That is, in part, why Danny was currently hiding in the Comic Book Store on 12th street: his parents having yet another shouting match. The other part was Jackson’s creepy new obsession with that video he took of himself sleeping made Danny feel really uncomfortable around his so-called best friend. Jackson hadn’t stopped bugging him about restoring the freaking video of him sleeping... and, okay, everyone knows that Jackson thinks he’s god, but why, exactly did he think watching himself sleep was something to get that worked up over?  

So, yeah, between Jackson and his annoying stupid video and his parents shouting about who’s fault it was he liked guys, Danny really just need to escape his perfect not-perfect life for a hour... or 72.

  
“Danny?” He’d never really paid much attention to the voice of the person calling out to him before, but he’d recognise those soft pastel curls and startled blue eyes any day.

“Oh, hey Isaac. Do you, uh, come here often?” he asked, silently hating the way it sounded like a really bad pickup line.

“I, ah, I used to... when I was younger but, ah...I...It’s... I haven’t had much time these last few years.” The way he said it made it seem like he was an old man looking back on his life, thinking back on the days of old and nothing like the 16 year old that he was. 

“Do you?” He asked it so abruptly that Danny had forgotten what he had asked Isaac to begin with.

“Hm?”

“Do you? You know, come here often?” Isaac asked again, in a way that made it seem like Danny’s life depended on his answer.

“I guess,” Danny said, shrugging as he mindlessly looked through the rows of comics, “not really.”

“You guess, or not really?” Isaac’s voice was one of off hand curiosity and deep desire. A conflicting combination that seemed to fit Isaac like a custom Armani glove.   

“Is there a difference?” Danny only asked because he genuinely didn’t know the answer, not because he was flirting with Isaac Lahey and found his weird combination of the off hand comments with genuine interest to be incredibly attractive.

“There is,” Isaac replied, his blue eyes disappearing behind his eyelids temporarily. “I think.”

“I only come here when my parents are having a shouting match and Jackson’s too busy recording his REM cycle to remember that, yes, he does have a bestfriend who has  homophobic parents.”

“My dad locked me in the basement meat freezer.” Isaac replied.

“What?”

“My dad used to lock me in the meat freezer, or out on the front porch, or throw dishes and glasses at me, or his fists, or whatever he could reach quickest.”

“And no one noticed?” Danny asked, because, really, no one deserved to be treated like that.

“Jackson saw me out on the porch a couple of times, the night my dad died for sure...” Isaac shrugged, “I guess he just didn’t want to get involved...Sure changed his mind when my dad was murdered and he was called in for questioning.” he paused there, “D’you think Jackson told them what he did just because they asked... or did he... did he want me to go to prison?” Isaac must have realised what he’d asked was wrong because he backtracked quickly. “I’m sorry, you’re his best friend, that was rude.”

“It’s okay, I just....” Danny tried to collect his thoughts, “I just wish I knew the answer to that too.” He wasn't just saying that either, because Jackson may very well be his best friend, but that was a shit thing to do and honestly, Danny kind of wanted to know why Jackson hadn't reported Mr. Lahey well before Isaac was suspected of killing him.

Isaac must have sensed the sincerity in Danny's voice, because, in exchange, Isaac smiled at him and said, "Thank you.

So, maybe not everyone liked Danny and his perfect life wasn’t exactly perfect, but Isaac had trusted Danny, and considering what Isaac had been through, and how hard that trust must be to earn, it made him feel like he had gotten just a little bit closer to perfect.


	2. Isaac

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Isaac reveals a little too much about his living situation, and Danny doesn’t know how to deal with the information.

Isaac Lahey had always been invisible, even after he was turned and he was stronger, people still didn’t notice him. Then again, after the bite, people thought he had murdered his father (which he hadn't despite having wanted to)...so that could be part of why people still avoided Isaac like he was the plague. Except, right then, at the comic book store, where Danny Mahealani stood browsing through Green Arrow and Young Justice, looking at Isaac like he actually mattered. It was only fair that Isaac return the favor by looking at Danny as if he'd never seen him properly before. After all, Isaac may not be an actual murderer but most people still saw him as nothing more than the guy who was accused of killing him own father. Then again Danny had never been most people. He was likeable and approachable and whole and everything Isaac wasn't.  Yet Danny was looking at him like he was a gift from God.  Suddenly Isaac can't get the smell of hurt and fear and sincerity out of his sensitive werewolf nose even as Danny's overwhelming happiness takes over.

 It takes Isaac a while to realize why Danny smells so strongly of emotions when he never had before.

Armani.

Danny wasn't wearing his usual aftershave, or rather he wasn't wearing any at all.

"No Armani today?" He tries to sound casual. A difficult feat so soon after blurting out that his father beat the crap out of him.    

"First McCall, now you?" Danny sighs but its lighthearted and teasing. "Is my aftershave that strong?"

"Nah. Scott and I just have a stronger sense of smell than most people." Not technically a lie, but Isaac doesn't feel right saying it the way he has. Not to Danny.  Not after knowing what went on behind the powerful mask of the Hawaiian teen's Armani aftershave.  Danny didn’t deserve half-truths any more than he deserved outright lies, but Isaac really doesn’t have much of a choice, so he rubs the back of his neck and invites Danny out for coffee.

<3<3<3

Its dark by the time Danny and Isaac finally part ways and grabbing a coffee had extended into grabbing lunch and lunch extended into dinner. Danny paid for his own meals despite Isaac’s numerous protests that he was buying.

Isaac hasn’t had this much fun of the normal human teenager variety since his brother died in combat, and of course, Isaac tells Danny this because the Hawaiian has the supernatural ability to completely shut off Isaac’s brain to mouth filter and Isaac wonders if this was what Stiles felt like every day with the over sharing and constant talking and the inability to control what leaves his mouth.

“This was fun.” said Danny, smiling softly at Isaac, “thank you. It was a nice distraction.”

Isaac smiles back as they walk through the streets of Beacon Hills trying to find a reason to avoid going home. Of course, to Isaac “Home” was actually an old bus that’s stored in an abandoned warehouse so he really didn’t need to think that hard to find a reason to stay out longer, but Danny had an actual home in an actual house with a family who may disapprove of some things about him but ultimately loved him unconditionally.

“Yeah,” Isaac said, doing that nervous lip-biting thing that Erica teased him mercilessly about, “We should do this again sometime.” Isaac meant it too. Isaac was glad to have a day where he could just be Isaac again, not Isaac-Derek’s beta, but Isaac the comic-book loving goofball that had a habit of saying all the wrong things and stuttered nervously and wished he could just disappear into the background. It was nice to worry about dying of embarrassment instead of dying at any second at the hands of the Kanima. 

“So I guess I should be going home. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Isaac says with a fraction of a smile, “yeah, Tomorrow, at Lacrosse Practice.”

Danny starts to walk away, waving ‘goodbye’ over his shoulder as he heads towards his family and his life and his mundane, human-variety simplicity. Isaac is happy too, he realizes as Danny finally leaves his line of vision, the phantom of Danny’s scent lingering in Isaac’s olfactory system. His happy isn’t the mundane human-variety like Danny’s, but he’s happy. He has Pack, he has Erica and Boyd and Derek...and he has Danny, which is more than he’d had this morning when he’d decided to spend his Saturday morning ditching werewolf training in the comic-book store.

So Isaac smiles as he walks ‘Home’ to the warehouse (his mind supplies a Stiles-esque werewolf pun that makes him fight down a howl of laughter ‘The Were House...geddit? because it’s a warehouse and you’re werewolves and...’) where he knows Derek will give him the brooding silence treatment from Hell and will work the pack twice as hard tomorrow as punishment for him bailing today and Erica and Boyd will swear they will never forgive him even though he knows they’ll be bluffing. Even after all that Isaac knows that it will all be worth it to have spent the day with the Danny Mahealani that's usually hidden behind all the Armani.

 


End file.
